The "shuttle effect" in San Francisco [View all]

http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2012/03/19/paying-more-to-be-near-a-company-shuttle-stop/

We’ve written in recent weeks about how real estate in Silicon Valley is starting to sizzle, with recent transactions going above asking with multiple offers and all cash. For many employees of Apple, Google, Facebook and the like, the desire to live within a reasonable proximity seems to have created an abnormally hot real estate market in certain pockets of the Peninsula and the South Bay.

Some techies, while they may work in the Valley, prefer to leave the corporate campus and return home to a more urban and cultural city. The private corporate shuttles offered by Google, Apple, Facebook and many other tech (and biotech) companies that ferry employees from San Francisco down 101 and 280 are creating little hot real estate spots all over the city. Homes near a shuttle stop seem to be commanding a premium over homes in the same or similar nearby neighborhood, but that are more of a walking distance away....

The private bus routes sponsored by tech firms are a draw, said Zephyr agent Danielle Lazier…. Noe Valley is at the top of the list, then Bernal, Mission, Dolores, Cole Valley.”

The hottest properties are near corporate shuttle bus stops…Real-estate agent Amanda Jones calls it the “Shuttle Effect” and said proximity can command as much as a 20% premium. Some real-estate agents said they’re dying for a map of where the buses pick up. “When a listing gets deluged with people—that tells me it’s close to a stop,” said Ms. Jones.

Here's a thought: Why don't we have better transportation from The City to the Peninsula and SiliValley? That way people could live anywhere in SF, AND work for any company they chose, rather than just the behemoths that can run their own shuttles. Electrifying Caltrain would be an excellent start.